LEXINGTON, Ohio — It's almost worse this way. If the car was a snail, the team clueless and the driver a talentless clown, the poor results would at least align with the faults.

But none of those things are true of Sebastien Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan. Not even close.

Though nearly 40 years old, the four-time series champion Bourdais remains among the most skilled drivers in the series, and the No. 19 DCRVS team — led by engineering dynamo Craig Hampson — is top quality.

All of that was perfectly evident Sunday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where Bourdais stole the show by unleashing a wave of jaw-dropping overtakes. He masterfully maneuvered around the likes of Simon Pagenaud, Ryan Hunter-Reay and more than a dozen others using every tool in his substantial tool belt.

"We played the chess game well today," Bourdais said. "I was able to make guys use push-to-pass in defense, then attack when they don't expect it and make things happen. It was a mind game out there. We really had to work at it and be smart."

Sunday's race featured 188 passes with Bourdais notching a race-best 20 of them and climbed 18 spots, from 24th to sixth. None of them came as the result of a caution or in pit lane. It was all Bourdais and that car.

The problem, though, is that he had to make that many passes in the first place. The only reason Bourdais was positioned to overtakes all those cars was because of a qualifying blunder Saturday that caused him to start dead last for Sunday's race.

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Sebastien Bourdais, born Feb. 28, 1979, in Le Mans, France, has been driving in the IndyCar Series since 2011. Prior to that, Bourdais won four championships in the CART series. Jasen Vinlove, USA TODAY Sports

Sebastien Bourdais suffered fractures to his hip and pelvis in a nasty crash during qualifying for the 2017 Indianapolis 500. James Davison was chosen to race in the Indy 500 for Dale Coyne Racing in Bourdais' place. Greg Huey, AP

Sebastien Bourdais winsn race No. 1 of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit at Belle Isle Park on June 4, 2016 for his 35th career IndyCar/CART victory. The win moves him into a tie for sixth place with Bobby Unser for most wins in North American open-wheel series races. Raj Mehta, USA TODAY Sports

Sebastien Bourdais drives on the street-course at the Honda Indy Toronto on July 14, 2013. Bourdais recorded two podium finishes in Toronto in the weekend doubleheader. Timothy T. Ludwig, USA TODAY Sports

Sebastien Bourdais joined the IndyCar Series in 2011 after spending two seasons in Formula One following the dissolution of the CART series. Here, Bourdais practices for the 2012 IndyCar Grand Prix of Baltimore on Sept. 1. Michael Madrid, USA TODAY Sports

Sebastien Bourdais crosses the finish line to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach for the second consecutive year on April 15, 2007. Bourdais won a career-high eight races in 2007 and captured his fourth consecutive CART championship. Matt Sayles, AP

Sebastien Bourdais, front, opened the 2006 season by winning the Grand Prix of Long Beach from the pole on April 9. Bourdais earned seven wins in 2006, capturing his third CART championship in a row. Mark J. Terrill, AP

Sebastien Bourdais, front, drives to victory Nov. 7 in Mexico City in the final race of 2004 season. Bourdais recorded seven victories in 2004 and won his first CART championship. Dario Lopez-Mills, AP

He was able to save an extra set of the grippier sticker red tires and, combined with a quick car, his artful and daring driving, Bourdais ripped through the field. But only up to sixth. Not even a top-five, Bourdais lamented.

"It sure is a day of frustration when you start 24 and you finish sixth, cutting through the field like we did instead of starting top six, top five, whatever it would have been and fighting a straight fight from the front," Bourdais said after the race. "You see a lot of guys just starting first, finishing first. Starting second, finishing third. Not a lot of movement at the front. When you catch those guys from, I don't know, 30 seconds back or something, it's a day of what could it have been?"

It's more than just a day of that. It's an entire season of what could have been. Bourdais knows it's a longshot for Coyne's David-esque team to take down IndyCar's Goliaths in Penske, Andretti and Ganassi, but it seemed possible early in the season.

After winning the opener at St. Petersburg, Bourdais and company went to Phoenix and ripped off the fastest lap of qualifying to start on pole, but bad luck wound up costing them a podium. Then more bad luck — and some inopportune decisions from race control — rained on Bourdais' parade at Long Beach, and actual rain washed away what looked to be a victory at Barber.

He notched a top five at the Indianapolis Grand Prix and then qualified as the fastest Honda-powered driver in the field ahead of the Indianapolis 500.

All of that early-season success should have spelled better results. And from there, things have gone down hill. Belle Isle was a disaster; Texas was OK; but the past three finished outside the top 10 at Elkhart Lake, Iowa and Toronto effectively ended their championship hopes.

And Bourdais takes responsibility for it.

"We can't seem to have a straight up normal weekend, where we start at the front, make no mistakes and stay there," Bourdais said. "It's frustrating particularly because a lot of it is on me. I'd say half of it. The rest of it is tough luck and bad breaks and one reliability issue in Road America. It's tough because it's a group that's working so hard to pull those results. You wish so hard that you could do a bit better than that."

With only four races left and 199 points back of Scott Dixon, Bourdais and the team's championship dreams are dead, as they'll have to wait until next year to see if they can pull of a stunning upset of IndyCar's titans.

That's a hard pill to swallow, said Coyne, considering how good this season might have been had things broken just a bit differently.

Maybe it's not all bad, though. Bourdais said he's learning about himself this season and what kind of approach he needs to succeed. It sounds funny, Bourdais admits, that at 39 years old, he's still learning that type of thing about himself. But it's true, and he hopes he can put those hard lessons learned to good use in the future.

"On my side, I've needed to chill out a bit," Bourdais explained. "I need to try less hard. Today was a good balance of aggression and composure. I need to find that balance, which is tough to do sometimes. Like at Detroit, when you push like mad to try and get back in contention, it's tough to dial it a bit back. But if you don't, you expose yourself to a tiny little mistake that seems like nothing but can take you out of the race and ruin the weekends and efforts of everyone. I'll keep working at it, I guess. Thirty-nine years old and I'm still learning."